From Fox Fields to Foxfield – 42-year college town tradition forges ahead with spectator-free fall races |
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Reynolds Cowles, Jack Sanford and more carry the Virginia meet through COVID and beyond |
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To understand the story of the Foxfield Races, understand a complicated script.
From the outer rail, the Foxfield Races (©Betsy Burke Parker) are as much about the tailgate as about the horses. From the inner rail, the Charlottesville, Virginia meet has been about providing opportunity for middle-tier turf, hurdle and timber horses climbing the National Steeplechase Association ranks.
For those at the top, Foxfield has been about surviving.
The Foxfield venue was embroiled in a three-year court battle, recently resolved for a bright future for the historic venue.
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Today, on the eve of the much-anticipated return of steeplechasing to central Virginia – albeit without spectators and under strict COVID precautions, the races and the racecourse are saved and safe, protected from the grave by specific wording of the last will and testament by Foxfield Races founder Mariann de Tejeda.
The site was home to the Albemarle airport in the 1930s, the land later purchased by Farmington Hunt huntsman and popular professional horseman Grover Vandevener. He called it Fox Fields, riding and hunting across the farmland northwest of Charlottesville with clients, pupils, subscribers and notable visitors such as Pulitzer Prize-winning author William Faulkner when he was writer in residence at the nearby University of Virginia.
California shipping heir Mariann de Tejeda bought the land when Vandevener died in 1973. She developed the track with the help of horseman, course designer and author Raymie Woolfe in 1977.
The first Foxfield meet ran in May, 1978.
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Owners, trainers, officials, horsemen -- nobody else is allowed on the grounds at the Oct. 4 Foxfield Races.
The state of Virginia is in Phase 3 of reopening efforts after the COVID-19 crisis, but Albemarle County never came out of Phase 2. No spectators are allowed at Sunday’s races.
Owners are allowed at socially distanced parking spaces, but they’re not allowed to cross the track or come to the paddock.
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Tejeda helped run the meet until she died in 1983; her will decreed the land be conserved as open space, held in trust for the continuation of the races.
The Foxfield Racing Association ran the races and managed the grounds since 1987, but for three years, the future of the venue, and the events run there spring and fall for 40 years, has been in question.
The finer points of Tejeda’s will were debated, and hotly contested, but this year, the newly formed Foxfield Racing LLC has brought positive, new energy to Foxfield. |
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Foxfield Racing Association president Tom Dick and Foxfield Racing LLC’s Dr. Reynolds Cowles helped place the 168-acre venue into open space easement with the Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation and the Albemarle Conservation Easement Authority.
Further, the Mariann de Tejeda Foxfield Memorial Foundation, a 501(c)(3), will be created to support horse activities and events for children with special needs.
“The future of Foxfield has been ensured,” Cowles says, noting the alignment with Tejeda’s last wishes. “We’re going to keep it that way.”
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Fun Fact:
In the 1930s, prior to the creation of Grover Vandevender's Fox Fields and Mariann de Tejeda's Foxfield, the property northwest of Charlottesville was the Albemarle County airport.
The original hangar (shown here at the west end of the homestretch), formerly painted pink and green in Tejeda’s silks’ colors, is still used today, for storage.
©Betsy Burke Parker
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Saving Foxfield – It took vision, dedication. And three years. |
One hundred sixty-eight is a tiny part of 104,000, but that’s all the acres it took to embroil the historic Foxfield racecourse and the community surrounding it in a three-year court battle.
The fractious issue pitting potential development with the former owner's dying wishes was resolved in December when the 168-acre property was placed into conservation easement to protect the land in perpetuity and provide a forever home for the popular spring and fall race meets.
An easement held by the Albemarle Conservation Easement Authority now shields the land northwest of fast-growing Charlottesville from development. Under the easement, if the current or future owners of the property stop holding steeplechase races, all public activities and events held at the property have to stop and are prohibited from resuming without further approval from the Authority.
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The entries for the Oct. 4 National Steeplechase Association-sanctioned Foxfield Races are great, according to Foxfield Racing Association LLC chair Reynolds Cowles. Seventy-four horses overfill a full card of seven races. Find the overnight: nationalsteeplechase.com
©Betsy Burke Parker
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A conservation easement is a permanent, legal agreement between a conservation organization and a landowner or easement holder, that allows the landowner to retain ownership of the land but places rules on how the land is managed and restricts land use to protect resources on the site.
Albemarle has more than 104,000 acres under conservation easement; the Foxfield easement prevents 16 possible houses on the property, which was, race officials say, their biggest fear.
That would have been directly against the wishes of Foxfield Races founder and former property owner Mariann de Tejeda, who wanted her farm to remain open land, and available for steeplechasing and other outdoor activities.
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With the help of Raymond “Raymie” Woolfe, Jr. (left, ©Berkenstock), former steeplechase jockey and prolific author of many non-fiction research books, including one on Secretariat, Tejeda had carved a racecourse out of the Garth Road property in the mid-1970s. Foxfield was previously a working farm and home to the Fox Fields riding academy of popular local professional horseman and Farmington huntsman, Grover Vandevender. |
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What They Say...
Foxfield Racing LLC’s Dr. Reynolds Cowles
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Dr. Reynolds Cowles currently serves as safety committee chair of the National Steeplechase Association.
As if he wasn’t busy enough doing that, advising his veterinary clinic and running his Yadkin Farm, Cowles has taken on a new position as chairman of the board of the new Foxfield Races LLC, created when the historic Foxfield property was placed in open space easement earlier this year.
So far, Cowles says, they’ve undertaken extensive renovations to the track, the facility and to the historic 1930s hangar still used for storage.
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“It’s been a very favorable year for grass growing,” says Cowles, pointing to generous rain totals and excellent turf renewal conditions. They aerated the course and over-seeded thin areas. Everything has been cleaned and painted. “We’re ready for Sunday. Ready as we’ll ever be.”
Cowles has had a long association with horses, conservation of open space and an overriding sense of civic duty. He grew up on a dairy farm in Statesville, North Carolina. His father raised Jersey cattle and bred Percherons, breeding mules from local jacks and Army remount mares.
His mother, who was the county tax supervisor, and his farmer father helped foster a deep understanding and appreciation of civic involvement that serves him to this day.
Cowles majored in wildlife biology at North Carolina State University and earned his vet degree at Oklahoma State.
Mariann de Tejeda founded Foxfield, Cowles explains, and wanted it to stay. "It's our job to see to it.
“Let’s get the races back to sustainable, get through COVID, get back to having spectators. We’ll build it out from there.”
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The first Foxfield Races were in May, 1978. Tejeda helped run the increasingly popular event for five years until her 1983 death.
In her will, she articulated her vision and legacy in writing: “I have but one wish for the remainder of my lifetime and after my death, and that is to apply all my time, energies and financial resources to the perpetuation of the Foxfield Races.”
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Tejeda is buried at the property.
Her original trustee, Benjamin Dick, died in 2016; his brother Tom stepped in to develop a new structure for the Foxfield Racing Association; FRA dissolved June 1, replaced by Foxfield Races LLC and the Tejeda Foundation, still being formed. Working closely with Dr. Reynolds Cowles, who chairs the new non-profit, Dick placed the land in conservation easement.
A non-stock, non-member, non-profit corporation – Mariann de Tejeda Foxfield Memorial Foundation, is still being formed. The foundation will support horse activities, and aid in education of children with special needs.
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“The founders of Garth Road Preservation are grateful to donors and for the concerted and collaborative efforts in reaching this outcome, which will continue the tradition of Foxfield Races,” Cowles told a local newspaper. “We also extend our thanks to Mr. Dick, members of the Dick family and the many loyal employees of the Foxfield Racing Association who have been faithful stewards of the races.” |
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Fun Fact:
Foxfield Races founder Mariann de Tejeda had some good racehorses in the early 1980s. Irish import Coconut Creek was her best, winning the 1980
Colonial Cup for trainer Barbara Kraeling (later Barbara McWade) and
rider Woody Maloney.
(Coconut Creek winning the Metcalf Memorial at Red Bank with Richard McWade aboard in 1982. ©Ted Freudy)
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Mariann de Tejeda in 1980 with then Foxfield race director Raymie Woolfe.
©Rosanne Berkenstock / NSA Archives
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What They Say...
Vice-chair of Foxfield Racing LLC and acting clerk of the Foxfield racecourse Jack Sanford
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Vice-chair of the new Foxfield Racing LLC, Jack Sanford has had a long association with racing and foxhunting in central Virginia.
“My grandfather, W.W. Sanford, was master of (the now-defunct) Tomahawk Hunt in Orange; his farm was adjacent to his very dear friend Marion duPont Scott at Montpelier.
“I grew up as a child always attending the Montpelier Races, hearing and sharing many great stories with her about him, and riding through the Montpelier forests.
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“Fast forward to the early 1980s. I was at the Gold Cup races in Warrenton at the old Broadview Course and met Monk Noland. He set the hook and reeled me in as his paddock judge understudy.
“That began a whole new life experience in the steeplechase world.
“In 1983, Mrs. Scott passed away, and in 1984 the family called to ask if I would help organize the (Montpelier) races.”
This year, Sanford says, would have been the 86th running of the Montpelier Races; COVID-19 forced cancellation of the November event.
Sanford (©Tod Marks, above) has served as an NSA steward and board member. He currently sits on the stewards’ advisory committee.
“Several years ago, Foxfield was listed to be sold,” Sanford says. “Mrs. Tejeda had left strict instructions in her will ‘for Foxfield to be enjoyed by the community for equine activities into the future.’ (Having been reminded of) that, several local members of the community contested that sale.
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“I am pleased to report that a smooth transition of the property was achieved on June 1 of this year. A new racing entity was formed – Dr. Reynolds Cowles was made chair, and I’m vice-chair. We’ve established a wonderful new board of local enthusiasts and hope to regain the support of our local community and breathe new life into the racing venue for all of Charlottesville.
“A conservation easement has been placed on the entire property to preserve the open space, and we’re excited to be able to host future activities that are in agreement with our easement covenants to help us sustain our financial existence and give back to the community as Mrs. Tejeda desired.”
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Fun Fact:
When the Foxfield Races first ran on May 13, 1978, “preppy” was barely in the vernacular outside the Old South and New England boarding school circuit, pink and green merely colors that didn’t really go together.
Two years later, the Official Preppy Handbook decoded all things madras, extolling gin and tonics before lunch, throwing back the curtain on the merits of wearing pink and green together.
Mariann de Tejeda’s pink and green block silks are forever part of the Foxfield Races tradition, captured in the Foxfield logo along with a graphic rendition of a Raymond Woolfe photo.
For the past 42 years, Foxfield has been a mecca for more than just preppies – add in tens of thousands of area residents, alumni and horsemen from around the circuit to those eager to participate in meets held each spring and fall.
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Over Labor Day weekend, Foxfield successfully ran a socially distanced women’s 4 mile footrace to benefit the University of Virginia breast cancer center, the Blue Ridge Food Bank, the Legal Aid Justice Center, and Foxfield. (©Andrew Shurtleff/The Daily Progress) It was a huge success, Sanford reports, with more than 1,000 runners and walkers.
“Our goal is to lay the groundwork for Foxfield to enjoy many years of races into the future,” Sanford says. “Given the great strides we’ve made, with the help of a smooth transition from former management and immediate help from local supporters who share our vision and passion for this property to remain open, I think we are in a very good spot to succeed in our endeavor.”
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Fun Fact:
Piedmont Environmental Council is designated Foxfield Races beneficiary for 2020. PEC ads will run on the live stream to get across their message on land conservation.
With the Foxfield property in conservation easement, association members are working to build the pillars of the Foxfield mission statement: to preserve tradition of steeplechasing at the property, to build and retain a connection with the community and to amplify the message about land conservation.
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What They Say...
Recently retired Foxfield race director Pat Butterfield
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Patrick Butterfield, Foxfield’s director of racing since 1990, has attended 79 of its 80 races and directed 58.
“It’s kind of incredible when I look back at it,” says Butterfield, who retired this summer.
Since the first Foxfield Races, Butterfield has felt a special affinity for the event – the first meet ran May 13, 1978, his birthday.
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Butterfield (©Douglas Lees) says race days were always stressful, with as many as 200 busloads of spring revelers attending the April event each year. But, he did it because he loved it. “I love the job. Steeplechase people are a special group, in it for the love of it,” he says.
Of the past three years when the future of Foxfield the open property, and Foxfield, the races, were both in question, Butterfield says “it was a difficult time. It was fairly stressful for everybody, both sides.
“But, fortunately, Reynolds Cowles and Tom Dick just sat down and worked it out.
“This event has been here since 1978. No one wanted to see Foxfield disappear.”
Though Butterfield has stepped back from official director duties, he’ll be there Sunday. “I’m happy to help,” he says. “Anything I can do to help to make Foxfield a success. I mean, I pretty much know every blade of grass on that place. I’m glad to help.”
A graduate of the University of Virginia, Butterfield was Foxfield outrider 1987-1990.
The Foxfield property, and races, “are a tremendous asset to the region,” he says. “There are very few communities that have an event like this.”
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Fun Fact:
Just down the road from Foxfield, just extricated from a three-year-long court battle over its potential sale and development, a battle of a different sort was fought 250 years ago. The Albemarle Barracks was a prisoner-of-war camp for British prisoners during the Revolutionary War. The site is just east of the Foxfield property.
After the Battle of Saratoga in 1777, several thousand British and Hessian troops were housed in barracks built in rural farmland northwest of Charlottesville. As the barracks were barely sufficient in construction, the officers were paroled to live as far away as Richmond and Staunton. Hundreds escaped Albemarle Barracks since there were few guards.
A historical marker and a memorial plaque mark the site, and the property is called The Barracks, an active hunter-jumper and foxhunting farm belonging to longtime races’ outrider Tom Bishop.
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What They Say...
Former Foxfield Racing Association president Tom Dick
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Benjamin Dick co-executed the will of Marilyn de Tejeda and served as president of the Foxfield Racing Association. His brother Thomas took over when Ben died in 2015.
Most recently, Tom Dick worked directly with Foxfield Racing LLC’s Reynolds Cowles to develop a new Foxfield structure to move the group past a divisive lawsuit over the future of the property and the races.
“Mariann de Tejeda was a thoroughbred steeplechase horse owner, businesswoman and entrepreneur,” explains Tom Dick. “She considered herself a true Virginian despite having been raised in California.
“Her love affair with Foxfield started in the late ‘60s from riding (there) with her dear friend and some say the love of her life, Grover Vandevender.
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Fun Fact:
One of the most famous people to ride out of Grover Vandevender’s Fox Fields barn was Pulitzer Prize winning author William Faulkner. His daughter, the late Jill Summers, was longtime Farmington joint-master.
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“It was Grover and Mariann's dream to some day run steeplechase races at Fox Fields.
“Mariann … promised Grover that some day she would do just that,” Dick says.
And she did.
Tejeda purchased the Foxfield property from Vandevender’s heirs, and contracted course designer Raymond “Raymie” Woolfe to help carve the racecourse from the rolling hills of the Garth Road farm.
Tejeda was race president until she died of cancer in 1983; she’s buried on the Foxfield property.
“Going forward, Foxfield Racing, LLC, under the leadership of Dr. Cowles, will be the new operator of the races and manager (of the property), and, eventually, the Mariann de Tejeda Foxfield Foundation. (It will be) in two five-year leases.
“(We’re) now gearing up to resume racing under the confines of the health directives of Virginia and Albemarle County under the “no fan” rules. Hopefully (able to) welcome spectators again in the spring of 2021.”
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Fun Fact:
The Farmington Beagles are still kenneled on the Foxfield property. Fox Fields and, later, Foxfield, used to be a Farmington Hunt fixture, with the original kennels on a next door farm. Encroaching development pressed the kennels 10 miles west to Free Union decades ago.
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